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Astrology of January 19th, 2017: Authority and Rebellion

19 January 2017Last Updated on 19 January 2017Written by Madame Ximon0 Comments

The day started out pleasantly enough with the Moon in Libra sextiling Saturn in Sagittarius in the very wee hours, following on the heels of last night’s Moon/Jupiter conjunction with the magnitude of last night’s emotions getting a steadying influence from Saturn, and the Moon in Libra’s harmonizing influence gentling our insecurities. Which was deeply needed with Mars in Pisces square Saturn in Sagittarius just 20 minutes later… These are the two trouble-making planets of classical astrology, the Lesser and Greater Malefic, and having them square off in the most challenging aspect pits aggression against fear; needless to say, this does not bode well for the day, and since planetary alignments change more slowly than Lunar and Solar alignments, we’ve been slowly building up to this for the past couple of days and will be feeling the reverberations for another couple more. I will not deny that this gives me concern for the numerous Inauguration Day protests planned throughout the United States. Given the stakes for the country if Putin’s coup and Trump’s resultant inauguration go unopposed, I’m not going to advocate for people not to protest, only for people to be careful and not allow themselves to be unduly provoked, as this alignment is likely to exacerbate an already volatile political climate.

That said, this alignment occurs within a Lunar void-of-course period set off by the Moon’s sextile to Saturn so soon before, with the resultant possibility that cooler heads will prevail (at least until this afternoon), as the void-of-course Moon helps us to see what to hold onto and what to let go of, and I am hoping that extends to tempers. 😉 Void-of-course Moon is also a time of heightened intuition, which I suspect is especially needed now, though it is also a time when we should stick to routine, and any bold new ventures or meetings now are likely to come to naught. This period lasts until this afternoon, when the Moon enters Scorpio less than an hour after the Sun enters Aquarius, and shortly after that the Moon and Sun square each other. Given the stubborn nature of both of these fixed signs, having our conscious and unconscious selves pitted against each other now is likely to generate additional frustrations.

The Sun in Aquarius makes us especially conscious of the individual’s place within society, and the ways in which the evolution of the individual shapes the evolution of society. That’s all well and good, but this afternoon that consciousness is pitted against intense and secretive Scorpionic emotions and instincts, and with Scorpio’s classical ruler Mars squaring off against Saturn from the watery realm of Pisces, we are likely to experience those emotions seething under the surface at length, until they are set off by just the wrong social trigger. There is some comfort perhaps in the mutual classical rulership of both Sagittarius and Pisces by Jupiter, currently in the socially-conscious sign of Libra, but Saturn’s classical rulership of Aquarius makes it likely that the Sun in this placement will simply reinforce the chafing-against-authority feeling of the Mars/Saturn square, with authority sparking rebellion and rebellion inviting further clamping down by authority, continuing in ever-intensifying circles.

However, the Last Quarter Moon that begins today is a time for releasing and letting go. Whatever we confront during this Mars/Saturn square, we need to exercise enough discernment to see what is worth keeping and what no longer serves us, and limit destruction only to what merits it. The Mars/Saturn square is positioned against the backdrop of the ongoing Triangle of Potential between individualist Uranus in Aries, socially-minded Jupiter in Libra, and disciplined Saturn in Sagittarius encouraging us to restructure our world mindfully with a greater balance between self and society, even as the United States moves toward its Pluto return, when Pluto transits the same degree that it did when this nation was born. Pluto, transcendental ruler of Scorpio where the Moon resides today, plays the long game with its multi-century orbit, and governs control, death, and transformation, sometimes all in the same intense package at once. Little wonder then that these two squares and the larger configuration and current cycles all overlap and reinforce each other now. Challenges like these are the catalysts to change and growth. What we do with that impetus is up to us.

(All aspect times are calculated for Pacific Standard Time. I tend to speak in broad terms when I reference time on this blog, referring to time-frames like “morning” or “afternoon” rather than specific times, since I still have a lot of friends on the East Coast who read these posts and I’d like them to be pertinent to those friends as well as folks here on the West Coast. Readers from further abroad will need to adjust time-frames accordingly.)